The barbell overhead press is one of the big 5 exercises and for good reasoning. When you do a standing overhead barbell press you feel it working your upper chest, but the reality is it’s not working it as much as we think that it is.
The overhead press is not an optimal exercise for muscular development in the chest. However, it is one of the big 5 exercises you should be doing. The muscles worked are the shoulders, triceps, trapezius, abs, obliques, and the serratus. It works the core and almost all of the upper body. The primary muscle group is the shoulders for muscle the most recruitment. Even though it works the upper chest just a little, it does help increase your strength on the bench press which will help build and strengthen your chest.
How much of the Chest is Worked during Overhead Press?
While the barbell overhead press is primarily a shoulder exercise, it’s just an okay exercise for bulking the upper chest. The barbell overhead press will cause some muscle activation in the chest, it will come from the upper part of the chest. Most injuries in the upper body and shoulder come from the bench press. The overhead press can help improve muscle strength in the shoulders and surrounding muscles to help prevent injuries from the bench press.
If someone is trying to improve their physique by building a better upper chest there are plenty of other options that will help build a better upper chest.
However, there is good news, by adding an incline bench you can help improve overhead press and improve your upper chest. This is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
While you’re not pressing weight while standing, you are still lifting weight above your head at an incline level and working a lot of the same muscle groups.
The barbell overhead press as mentioned is mainly a shoulder exercise and a great shoulder exercise at that for building more size.
Even though there is not much muscle contraction and the chest, it definitely works most muscle groups surrounding the chest.
Muscle Groups Overhead Press works the most
| Shoulder | Triceps |
| Trapezius | Serratus |
| Abs | Obliques |
Even though we are only getting some muscle recruitment from the chest during this exercise, we still get to work many other upper body muscles all at once. This is the best way to build more muscle and naturally train with high volume.
| The standing overhead press trains the upper chest but minimally, it’s best to use an incline bench press to train the upper chest and shoulders. However, the overhead press does work most upper body muscles like the triceps, trapezius, abs, obliques, and serratus. |
How to do the Overhead Press
The barbell overhead press seems like a simple exercise that you may want to skip or do from time to time but can have a lot of great benefits and help you maximize your results.
It’s not the sexy exercise like a bench press ort deadlift but can have a lot of benefits with your daily life as well.
When doing an overhead press we just lift the bar vertically straight above our head and then back down right? Not really, especially if you are a beginner.
Making sure that you start with just the bar and always get your form and technique down before you start adding weight to the bar. This is important because you want to prevent injury and also to make sure are you are training properly to get the right amount of muscle activation.
With that said good form for the barbell overhead press needs to begin with a slight leaning back at the hips and then you will just move under the barbell as soon as you raise it on the concentric part of the exercise or as soon as the barbell is over our head.
Keeping our lower back safe during this exercise is really important because it’s just so easy to lean back too much as you’re raising the weight and can increase the risk of us being injured.
A simple tip is to make sure you are squeezing your glutes and our core when you bend slightly back. It’s important we are creating stabilization while lifting weight above our head to minimize exposure to injuries.
When we tense our glutes and core the stabilization will prevent back injuries. As well as keeping a stable core, we should focus on slightly keeping the chest rolling forward or puffed out. You can do this just by flexing or tensing your upper back muscles.
The overhead barbell press is a really common ADL (activities of daily living) and is something everyone uses from day today when it comes to Simply lifting things above our head.
| The overhead press form is done correctly with feet shoulder with apart and the barbell resting on your upper chest. The grip should be slightly shoulder-width apart. A slight bend at the hips and the knees. You want to really contract your glutes and your core for more stability. The barbell path should be straight up and down in a vertical line. |
Can overhead press Help with Your Bench Press?
We now know that the standing overhead press likely isn’t your best option to improve and to develop your upper chest. However, there is always a silver lining because improving power and strength on the overhead press will crossover to improve strength on your bench press.
More strength on your bench press means a more developed chest. The overhead press directly doesn’t work your chest but will help improve your strength on the bench press.
The reason being is the overhead press is a movement done that is from a horizontal body position. This exercise requires overhead pressing which naturally uses your upper back muscles and can improve your strength on the bench press with the eccentric movement.
There have also been some studies that would indicate that the bench press can be used to determine upper body strength and other exercises. What the researchers came to find was that a 6RM bench press exercise was used to be able to predict a dumbbell shoulder press Quest hey+/- 5kg difference.
It’s really interesting because even though the overhead press is not an optimal exercise for building a better chest, it is highly correlated with your bench press. Which obviously does help with muscle activation from your chest.
Also, the opposite was true in a study if you we’re strong in doing shoulder press exercises, then you were also more than likely to have a strong bench press that is correlated to it.
Can I get a 6-Pack from the Overhead Press?
The chest may get very little muscle activation on the overhead press but on a positive note is you get to work a lot of other major muscle groups in the upper body while training your abs and obliques.
There is a lot of core stabilization that is required for being able to stand while using most of your upper body for a pressing movement.
A study was done to look at the core muscle activation during upper body exercises in women. With everyday movements demanding that we have to use our core and back muscles there have not been a lot of studies on the activity of core muscles while in a standing position.
Yes, the chest may recruit very little muscle activation on the overhead press but on a positive note is you get to work a lot of other major muscle groups in the upper body while training your abs and obliques.
There is a lot of core stabilization that is required for being able to stand while using most of your upper body for a pressing movement.
A study was done to look at the core muscle activation during upper body exercises in women. With everyday movements demanding that we had to use our core and back muscles there have not been a lot of studies on the activity of core muscles while in a standing position.
An EMG was used and placed on muscles like the rectus abdominis, obliques, longissimus, and multifidis muscles. The research was based off of 20 healthy women 4 exercise movements during Dynamic bilateral and unilateral shoulder exercises.
But they found during their research was that muscle activation for the groups was 35- 64% lower during the shoulder horizontal adduction and abduction what’s a fixation when they compared exercises with fixation.
what researchers came to find was that Upper Limb exercises (like overhead press) while standing are good for activating power core. Yes, the overhead press can help with getting a six-pack.
| Exercises that involve standing like the overhead press activates your core muscles while training. |
Improve General Strength with the Overhead Press
The deadlift is one of my favorite exercises because it is one of the best for increasing general strength. The overhead press is also one of the best exercises because it also helps increase your general strength as well.
The general strength that a deadlift helps us build is from the muscle groups on the backside of our body (posterior chain.)
While the overhead press works a different set of muscle groups such as our core and enhances our shoulder mobility. This is why the overhead press, as well as the deadlift, can greatly increase our overall general strength.
There have been multiple studies that show that deadlifting for those with back troubles can help improve or fix their backs altogether.
Of course, this is done under the supervision of someone who is trained to assess someone with back injuries and is able to correctly recommend the proper program.
Typically most shoulder injuries come from too much load on the bar while training arm exercises such as bench press. What a shocker, you mean guys try to bench too much weight.
In the event that you are trying to lift too much weight on the national bench press holiday, being a Monday. If the overhead press is done correctly you can help prevent injuries from the bench press by strengthing your shoulders.
| The barbell overhead press along with the deadlift is two of the best general strength exercises you can do. |
Final Thoughts
The overhead barbell press is one of the big 5 exercises for a reason. It’s very comparable when you look at things like overall general strength to the deadlift.
I feel like the overhead press exercise is often overlooked when compared to other exercises such as bench press, squat, deadlift, and etc. The overhead press activates and trains your core and a lot of other upper body major muscle groups.
However, it does not really enhance the size of the chest. It’s not the best exercise to build a better chest, even though it may train the upper chest a little bit.
It does help increase the strength on the bench press. which we know the bench press does increase our chest size and strength. The overhead barbell press is also great for preventing shoulder injuries from the bench press.